The S.O.B. Alliance Blog is already the place to be, and will be for the rest of the night. Click here or on the graphic at the top of the right frame to get there. We’ve divvied up the state, and will be reporting mostly on the GOP guv, Senate, and Congressional races. Most Dem races are not competitive.(graphic courtesy of Brain Shavings)

The Secretary of State’s office has said they will post unofficial results of congressional races as they receive them. We’ll see how quick they are. The Election Results page currently has turnout predictions for every county.

County-by-County for the Second District:

Hamilton County (in theory the gathering place for all 2nd District results, if past form holds) — Home Page (all results are presented as PDFs throughout the evening, which is a really dumb idea I wish they’d get away from)

Ohio Republican Mike DeWine is nothing more than an empty suit with beliefs that seem to change daily at the whim of whichever political master DeWine decides to serve. Want proof? Just look at the latest news on DeWine’s inability to lead.

Today President Bush will be in Cleveland trying to sell his national security strategy. Meanwhile DeWine will skip the event, apparently unwilling to be seen in public with the low-polling president. Just don’t take DeWine’s absence as a sign that he’s taken a principled stand against Bush’s failed policies – just last month DeWine was more than happy to have Bush host a fundraiser for his campaign.

Ohio voters want a Senator who will use his position of power to get things done and lead our country in the right direction.

For once I agree with the DSCC. We want a Senator like Bill Pierce who will indeed lead in the RIGHT direction.

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NOTE: I have endorsed Bill Pierce for Senate, and have provided nominal financial support for his campaign. BizzyBlog is a member of Blogs for Pierce.

….. The idea behind futile-care theory goes something like this: In order to honor personal autonomy, if a patient refuses life-sustaining treatment, that wish is sacrosanct. But if a patient signed an advance medical directive instructing care to continue â€” indeed, even if the patient can communicate that he or she wants life-sustaining treatment â€” it can be withheld anyway if the doctors and/or the ethics committee believes that the quality of the patient’s life renders it not worth living,

….. Clarke’s case involves value judgments rather than medical determinations. In such “qualitative futility” cases, treatment is stopped in spite of a patient’s or family’s objections â€” the intervention is necessary not because the treatment doesn’t work, but because it does. In essence then, it is the patient’s life that is deemed futile and, hence, not worthy of being preserved.

We should also note that the Clarke controversy isn’t anything like the Terri Schiavo case. Schiavo’s tube-supplied food and fluids were ordered withdrawn (supposedly) to carry out her wishes. But Clarke apparently wants to live and her family all agree that she should continue to be sustained. In other words, it is as if Michael Schiavo and Terri’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, agreed to maintain Terri’s feeding tube but a hospital ethics committee overruled their decisions and doctors removed the tube anyway.

….. Texas, however, has become ground zero for futile-care theory thanks to a draconian state law passed in 1999 â€” of dubious constitutionality, some believe â€” that explicitly permits a hospital ethics committee to refuse wanted life-sustaining care.

….. Cases like Andrea Clarke’s could not be more important. If the principle is ever established that doctors, hospitals, and faceless ethics committees can dictate who can live and who must die, the already weakening faith of the American people in their health-care system will be seriously undermined and the door will be thrown wide-open to medical decision-making based on discriminatory hierarchies of human worth. As German physician Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland wrote presciently in 1806, “It is not up to [the doctor] whether . . . life is happy or unhappy, worthwhile or not, and should he incorporate these perspectives into his trade . . . the doctor could well become the most dangerous person in the state.”

Be very afraid if futile care catches on. Those in a position to prevent its adoption should fight with every ounce of energy they have.

The Presbyterian Church has to makedeep cuts — This is the PCUSA version of the Presbyterians. Do you think their troubles might have a little bit to do with the Church’s intractable out-of-touch liberalism?

….. Todayâ€™s economy may be the greatest story never told. Itâ€™s an American boom, spurred by lower tax rates, huge profits, big productivity, plentiful jobs, and an ongoing free-market capitalist resiliency. Itâ€™s also a global boom, marked by a spread of free-market capitalism like weâ€™ve never seen before.

The political resolution to the disconnect between fear (high energy prices) and reality (a great economy) remains to be seen. But as the data keep rolling in, the economy continues to surpass not only the pessimism of its critics, but even the optimism of its supporters.

Recent data on production, retail sales, and employment are stronger than expected. The latest durable-goods report shows huge gains in orders for big-ticket items like airplanes, transportation, metals, machinery, and computers â€” even cars and parts. These orders suggest that the economic boom will continue as far as the eye can see. And thereâ€™s more: The backlog of unfilled orders, the best leading-indicator of business activity, gained 12 percent at an annual rate in the first quarter. With this kind of real-world corporate activity in the pipeline, highly profitable businesses will be doing a lot of hiring in the months ahead in order to expand plant and equipment capacity. Just what the doctor ordered.

….. The big point here is that free markets work. Rising prices from the global boom will lead to more conservation, less consumption, and more production, but only so long as government stays out of the way. Instead of blaming ExxonMobil for high gas prices, irate motorists and voters should blame Congress for mandating, regulating, and taxing against energy.

He does caution that the government could ruin things:

Indeed, bashing big oil wonâ€™t create a drop of new energy. Nor will confiscating Lee Raymondâ€™s bank account. Actually, over the past fifteen years, ExxonMobilâ€™s total investment has exceeded the companyâ€™s earnings, according to Washington analyst James K. Glassman. Meanwhile, all the evidence from time immemorial shows that gas prices are set by market forces, not manipulation at the production level. So-called price gouging is nothing but a political red herring. Windfall profits taxes and special tax subsidies will only diminish energy investment, not increase it.

Energy is best left in the hands of the free market. With this in mind, Congress should allow environmentally friendly drilling in ANWAR (sic) and the Outer Continental Shelf, more LNG terminals, and the creation of nuclear power facilities. Deregulation works: Just look at the boom in Canadian oil sands.

President Bush can also build on his new energy policy with more pro-growth measures that will extend the economic boom: Get rid of the ethanol tax for good. Repeal the tariff on imported ethanol from Brazil and elsewhere. Repeal the multiple taxation of dividends and cap-gains, and abolish the death tax while youâ€™re at it. Exercise the budget veto pen to stop bridges and railroads to nowhere. Go back to the Reagan economic model of a strong dollar to hold down inflation and lower-tax-rate incentives to promote economic growth. That model will work as well today as it did twenty-five years ago when it launched the long prosperity boom we continue to enjoy.

Most of all, let free markets work. This is the new worldwide message of freedom, prosperity, and optimism.

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